honesty in the textile business

THE STORY OF AN OLD WIGGY BAG

I dragged out my 20 year old 20 degree square Hunter bag without a hood for a camping trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. The temperature was in the mid to high 20's at night with freezing rain and snow. I was sleeping in a light tent and had a Wiggy's ground pad underneath. While my old bones would have liked a softer ground pad, I was never cold in the damp cold weather. I slept in light fleece long underwear with fleece booties and a fleece cap. I have read online people complaining that their Wiggy's bags lose loft and do not keep them warm. My 20 year old bag performed as new and I was warm all night in damp cold conditions.

– RTK

RTK I appreciate hearing from you and knowing that one of my bags is still going strong.

One comment in this story that I wonder about has to do with people complaining on some blogs about their Wiggy’s bags losing loft and consequently not staying warm.

The reason I wonder about such comments has to do with the guarantee. If the bags have truly lost loft and do not keep them warm how come they don’t send them back for replacement? I have encountered people complaining on web site about my products but never exercise their right to return the product.

I think all of the negative comments about Wiggy’s sleeping bags amount to free advertising.

NOW FOR MORE EDUCATION ABOUT GORE

Outside magazine has a blog about the outdoor industry companies and there is where I saw an article about gore offering what they claim is a new film that has qualities they believe [they lie to themselves or believe what ever they say will be believed by their customers, so the say what they want] has improved qualities beyond what they have sold for years.

The following is an excerpt from the article.

“The development of the materials is the starting point to building integrated and highly functioning systems,” said Matt Decker, global technical and innovation leader for consumer fabrics at Gore.

[Mr. Decker has a very lofty position and given his position he should have known the gore company started doing something at the very beginning of their sales of the goretex product as of necessity.]

“Combining ePE with polyurethane (PU) exploits its light, thin yet strong characteristics and creates a durably waterproof, windproof, and breathable membrane. The membrane can then be bonded to textiles (such as backer or face textiles) to form a GORE-TEX laminate. The laminate is used by customers to create finished products including footwear, gloves, and garments that are backed by the brand’s renowned Guaranteed to Keep You Dry promise.”

[What gore did was to apply a polyurethane layer to the ptfe film because when they tried laminating the ptfe film to nylon and they had wrinkles galore. The film is very tender. Plumbers Teflon pipe film is ptfe film so you can imagine how difficult it would be to laminate smooth. But the urethane film stabilized the ptfe film. Was decker not aware of this? What they have today 50 years later is nothing more than a tired story of what is not possible, no matter how many ways gore presents it.]

I speak with customers all of the time who have for years read what I have had to say in my expose of gore stating it doesn’t work and they all to a person agree with me but not only does gore continue but other companies have risen to challenge gore in the marketplace. I am a person who believes in scientific discovery. The guys at gore are not scientists and we know that to be factual because they believe that goretex does what is claimed in the second paragraph of the excerpt I reprinted. All of the wannabees are equally unscientific because if they tested the goretex they would have found out quickly as thousands of consumers have that goretex doesn’t work. But if they did and are still interested in offering the same product, they are equal to gore as charlatans.

Each and every week when I read the articles in the textile publications that I receive online new articles appear from some company about their new material. It is not necessarily goretex type stuff but it is not any less as foolish as goretex, a slap in the face of physics.

The latest is a fabric that can be used in an unlined jacket. This material is a doozy of a fabric. When worn with one side facing the sun light it will reflect the sun light’s radiant heat to keep you cool. Now if you reverse the jacket so the shell side becomes the lining side it will keep you warm, sun or no sun, imagine that.

I read about all of these fabrics and I realize the people who are supposedly creating them have no knowledge of what they are doing. Their main objective is to convince someone who heads the marketing for the company to take the ball and run with it.

Honesty and integrity in the textile business leaves a lot to be desired.